Hi, I'm David.

In that instant, Conan the Barbarian got his balls back, and probably not a moment too soon. If you weren’t watching him before the blowup, you were compelled to follow him afterward. That’s because the late-night donnybrook didn’t fizzle out with the usual televised hissy fit. Instead, O’Brien channeled the frustrations and aspirations of every stuck-in-a-rut striver in America by triumphing—and by doing so with a deft example of professional jujitsu. Using wit, charm, humility, and a neatly focused media strategy, he managed—finally—to become America’s hero.